The 23-year-old from King’s Lynn went to the famous circuit for round 11 of the British Superbike Championships knowing he stood a good chance of taking home the silverware – if he could get a couple of good results to consolidate his healthy 50-point advantage.

The wet conditions on Saturday meant all qualifying was halted for several hours and Pett’s first race was run in tricky conditions – suddenly, the possibility increased of him having to wait until the final round to take the title.

The three main title hopefuls – Pett, Scott Pitchers and Phil Atkinson – were quickly into their familiar positions at the front, but despite the conditions it was Pitchers who made the running, consolidating second position from Atkinson.

“It was more prudent to lose five points to Pitchers rather than 25 if he fell off,” he reasoned.

Pett showed he had plenty in hand when he put in the fastest lap of the race, by more than four seconds, but his points lead had been cut to 44 and this meant he had to beat Pitchers in the following day’s race to take the title before Brands Hatch.

In race two Pitchers and Atkinson, along with Tom Carne, came out fighting and at one point Pett was back in fourth. Positions changed constantly and while Pett moved up to second, he had nothing left to give.

But it was enough: Carne took the win, but Pett took the title.

RAF Marham’s RAF Reserves Superbike team did not have the best of qualifying, with Peter Hickman not making it into the second session, having to start the first race in 20th place on the grid. Hickman sorted the problems out when he put in the third fastest lap during Sunday’s warm-up session. On the F1 circuit the Honda does not have the speed of the Kawasakis and BMWs, but Hickman still took two excellent ninth places.

The Norwich Morello team’s Superbike in the hands of ever-improving John Ingram was 18th, while Ingram retired in race two. Conor Cummins took the RAF Reserve’s team’s Honda Fireblade into 18th in the Superstock 1000 race while Jesse Trayler and Daniel Johnson put the Morello team’s Kawasaki into eighth and ninth respectively. In the Superstock 600 race Gorleston’s Charlie King was 21st and Jack Keen from Norwich was a non-finisher.